Colores de Violencia

Museum Catalog Note This Spanish-language pulp adventure magazine contains "Colores de violencia" (Colors of Violence) by Curtis Garland, a crime/gang violence narrative set in the Bronx. The story opens with shop owner Barton Shapiro terrorized by the "Halcones," a Hispanic gang, who destroy his supermarket as retaliation for his police report of a theft. Gang rivalry escalates when José Cifuentes, an eighteen-year-old Hispanic gang member, is beaten fatally by the rival "Black Warriors" gang in a tunnel confrontation. Police discover his body with a shattered skull and knife wound. Meanwhile, crime boss Enrico Reno cynically exploits the gang conflict to distribute drugs with police distracted, planning to manufacture further violence between rival factions. The narrative also references a serial killer ("the sadist of the nights") murdering prostitutes. The story concludes as Police Captain Victor Russo, exhausted and frustrated, meets with Commissioner Elton Riggs to discuss the Bronx's escalating lawlessness and gang warfare.